Permaculture Design Projects

Planting guide from my project below.

When I first started reading about Permaculture over a decade ago, I searched all over for examples of Permaculture designs. I was very frustrated. There were so few books available, and there were almost no websites on the subject of Permaculture let alone ones with examples of quality designs. As the years have passed, there have been a growing number of very good books written on various aspects of Permaculture. However, I am still frustrated with the relative lack of designs available to investigate, to review, to learn from, and to see the wide variety of design possibilities within Permaculture.

I know this is not from lack of designs. Every person who takes a PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) course, based on Bill Mollison’s (the co-founder of Permaculture) 72-hour course, must complete a design project to become certified. Then there are all the designs that these graduates have done since completing the course. This means there are thousands and thousands of designs out there.

This lack of availability of designs is likely based on a few things:First, many people do their design work with paper and ink or pencils. They may not be computer-literate enough to get these large-paper designs into an easy to view electronic format.Second, many people are a bit nervous about making their designs public. They don’t want other people critiquing their work or pointing out errors or pointing out better ideas for the project. I understand that to a point. There is a sense of pride in the work, and you don’t want that to be crushed. I think this is the most common reason by far.Third, and I think this is the least common reason, is that consultants who are getting paid for their designs do not want their work to be out there for others to use for free. The reason I doubt this is very common is that Permaculturists are, by far and large, very sharing people. Also, Permaculture design is so site specific that it would be very difficult to transfer one design to another property.

With all that said, I am going to share the design project I completed in the PDC I did with Geoff Lawton. I am sure people will see mistakes and have critiques. I welcome this. Seriously! My personal motto while I was in medical school and residency was, “If I don’t feel uncomfortable at least once a day, then I am not learning.” I have applied this to anytime I am trying to learn anything. Permaculture is no different. I want to be stretched. I want to learn. I want to become better.

I invite you to share your designs with me, and I will in turn post them on this page. I will remove any personal information if you would like. Some people will have amazing designs and fantastic illustrations or drawings. Others will have very basic pen and ink sketches. It doesn’t matter. Permaculture is not about presentation. It is about design! If you have photos of your design put into reality, I would love those as well. Please share your designs with the world. You may be the inspiration for another Bill Mollison or Geoff Lawton. You may have the design element someone was looking for. Please contribute to the Permaculture community!

25 Comments

Thank you for sharing your Final PDC design. I am greatly impressed with the detail and presentation and totally agree with you that other designer’s examples provide an important and invaluable learning tool.

I am currently working on my design and hope to share on completion. Have collected most of the details for the design, but unfortunately only have limited computer skills . I’m particularly challenged when it comes to mapping and scale but, it’s a learning curve and I’m up for the challenge!

Incredible design, extremely well executed & great detail. Graphics are impressive. All your written explanation is easily understandable, covering so much. Very professional. Well done!
There is a site set up for our class to display designs for review & inspiration – Eric set it up but for some reason my technology won’t allow me to bring it up to give you link. In the PDC community forum there is a link. Your design would be a fine addition if you are interested.
Almost finished with mine – hand drawn layers – I’ll scan to pdf & send off to Geoff Lawton & team soon.
Great work!
Cynthia

I am freaking out a little about the final design project. I may just have to hand draw it and send it in. I have been trying to learn sketchup but that may take too long. Thank goodness he gave the extension. I wish I knew how you drew your graphics. Well done! Now I have to go wring my hands and worry about it some more.

I agree! I am freaking out also. My drawing skills are not so good and I definitely don’t have time to to learn more computer programs. I also worry about the plant list for my area. Between the two worrying it will probably be something like the patterning part that I screw up on.

Thanks for posting this – I love seeing what others have done, as it is always informative and interesting! I am working on my planting plan today for my design (I’m also in Geoff’s class).

I hope you don’t mind if I ask what software you used for your design? I am using Inkscape now, but would like to know what other programs are out there. I have almost no natural drawing ability, so I need to use a computer program to have it understandable to anyone.

Janet – All the drawings were done with pen and ink (by hand). I then scanned it in to Photoshop to add color and text. The writing was all done in Word… not my favorite layout program by any stretch, but it worked. Then I converted it to a PDF. Just remember, I used to be a graphic designer. I think my project looks good, but there are some artists that would blow my project out of the water; however, what it looks like is not the point. Permaculture is about design. That is the most important thing. We still need to express our design in a way that others can understand, but that can be done with a pencil and paper and almost no artistic skill. Practice the art side of things to help express your design, but put most of your focus on the design, not the art.

The ten designs that I did for my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design are all posted on my blog http://sustainablesmallholding.org/ The diploma designs sit in a drop down menu nested under the ‘Permaculture Diploma’ Tab near the top of the page. They are mainly land based designs, but not all are. You’re welcome to comment or ask questions on the relevant designs if you wish.
All of the best
Deano

I really like Dustin Cote’s root cellar summary, solar tool, summary chart of environment, and the micro climate ridge that incorporates a water system – pretty clever. The playscape is pretty neat – I think I’d still like to play in it even though I’m not a kid.

Thanks, Rua.
I was surprised how long it took to gather the data to fill that summary data chart. However, it was the first thing the client saw & got excited about. They liked having all that data in one location.

Hello all, I want to thank you so much for posting your designs, they have helped me to organise my thoughts immensely. I was absolutely stumped as to how to go about it and what how to present it. I don’t have anywhere near the skills you guys have but am working on getting there slowly. Will be sharing my desing when finished and I hope it helps you in subsequent designs as much as this has helped me.

I wondered if anyone could tell me how I go about showing the present water movement on my map. Those of you that did manage to put this in a visual, I was hoping you could share how ou did it. Was it a computer programme or a site you found or did you draw the arrows in and scan the picture onto the computer? The maps are one of the things I’m having trouble with. I’m fine with the actual design aspect but it’s all the technical stuff that’s getting me stuck.

Does anyone know of a new(apparently 3 years ago or so?species of fly? It is tiny and white and digs pomegranate and grapes, origins=found in Australia, now in South Africa apparently came from shipment of pomegranates from Australia breeds daily?
Only known predator Australian social wasp.but not in South Africa. If any one knows
About this fly pls let me know. Thank you

Great design, looks really well thought out. I agree about the lack of availability of site design demos, I didn’t learn this skill untill I took a PDC. Maybe permaculture teachers are afraid that people will copy and paste without understanding if a design element will work in their situation or maybe pick out an element that works in the design but doesn’t work when taken out of context. Personaly, I would share my designs with anyone even if I do get crushed, better on paper and not implemented. I recently saw a design made by the Mas Humus group and it was amazing. Thanks for sharing.

I would guess that at least a proportion of the graduates are preppers who took their PDC to design their own property or have found that a proportion of their clients fall into that category. On the whole, preppers are pretty tight lipped about their properties and locations as part of operational security. The permaculture community may be very sharing as a characteristic, the prepper communities are too, but not about their properties. Anyone with a foot in each camp will feel torn in this and probably several other areas.

I will be posting my designs on permacultureglobal, but without specific location details and probably with the boundary outlines modified enough to make it difficult to match to the actual property, simply because that is the target community for my future consulting business. Having said that, I will be protecting my clients by genericising what I post, so you are welcome to use my materials to further this cause of yours.

Having said all that, I think what you are doing by posting these designs is a very important step forward for the permaculture community – as is everything you have done on this incredibly useful resource you are creating here. I continue to be astonished at the amount of effort you are putting into this and I hope you find your efforts are rewarded financially and not just through community acclaim. I am sorry I missed meeting you at PV1…maybe next year.

Hi there. I just found your website and I love it. I’m a novice prepper and am just learning to garden. I bought my first apple tree last week. I live in the north east corner of Montana in Zone 3 by USDA guidelines. I am very new to everything but love the idea of having a self sustaining environment. I am really wanting more information on what kinds of things can even grow in my area. We are desert – some years we get less than 12 inches of rain each year. We have extremely cold winters – this past winter we hit -40 without factoring in the wind-chill. Any trees must be planted and cared for – nothing really grows up here without being bought and planted. I’ve heard that apple trees will grow… but what about nuts and berries?? Please help – even just a resource of where to look next. I know this will be a life long learning curve but I’d like to start now!! Is there anyone even close to my region??

Bonnie. You already have started. Keep plugging away on you tube videos and reading anything. I am about a year ahead of where you are at. Suddenly the light bulbs start to come on in your brain. Get on Permies.com. Just start planting and thinking in a different mindset. I grew my first 3 head of cauliflower this year, ate one tonight. We have not bought lettuce from the store in over 5 weeks. All of my plants are starting to do really well. I built a hulgelkulter bed last year and the abundance of life and soil health is exponential this year. Look around you I bet there are tons of free inputs all over the place, tree cuttings, lawn clippings, leaves, kitchen waste. Learn how to compost well. I am still struggling with that a bit, but finally harvested my first good batch of compost this weeks. I am making compost tea as I write this. I am trying to close the loop on my property. Trust me you will get there. Not knowing a thing about what I was doing, just trying out ideas that looked good to me has made a huge difference for me. Now with some guidance I cannot wait to see where I get by next year. Welcome aboard, this knowledge is going to change your life.

I realize I didn’t give you many answers to your questions. Learn what zone you are in. Then start looking for plants compatible for your zone. There are definitely berries and nuts you can grow. You mentioned you planted an apple tree, well that tree needs a friend, you need at least two apple trees. The planting below those trees will help those trees to grow stronger and quicker. Mulch is your friend. Start thinking of ways to collect water on your property. Learn about swales, and contour lines, tons of videos out there explaining it. Watch your local nurseries or big box stores when they are selling perennials cheaply. Water is going to be huge for you since you talked about it being so dry. Focus on collecting as much water as possible when it does rain. We get tons of things delivered from Amazon, I save all the boxes and use it as sheet mulch. Hulgel beds are easy to build and will really help in your climate. Mulch mulch and more mulch.
Like I said I am very new to this as well, but permaculture people are incredibly generous with their knowledge. Some will even send you cuttings of plants. I bet there is a permaculturist in your local community, you just need to find each other.

Awesome. As I contemplate how to even get started with my first design it is so helpful to see something like this. Simple, to the point, and with tons of techniques and systems. This sounds a lot like the desires and goals I have for my own property. Thanks for sharing this.

I am looking for guidance on what software program is suitable for permaculture design, (and hopefully cheap and easy to learn) because I hope to do more than one design so I want to learn a program this winter.

I never found one that had the features for which I was looking. I did my original plan for my own 5 acres, old school- i drew them by hand with the aid of some drafting supplies like a very good compass, high quality mechanical pencils and fine drafting quality markers. No learning curve, just patience. The down side is that if you make large drawings in color than digitizing them is not as easy as you would hope. Using a hand drawing is less energy intensive than using a computer, which if you are trying to minimize your reliance on the power grid is a consideration.

What a great idea, I’ve been on a lot of permaculture sites but sharing design ideas just seems such a logical thing to do.

This is not about design but I see some “preppies” have replied. As most stuff in English on the web is from the US (like this site), I see a lot of “preppies” stuff and as a European I am intrigued. I know you have a Transition movement in the US but where are “preppies” at with regard to Transition ? Are you survivalists, or community resilience proponents, or somewhere in between ? I can’t find anything which discusses this, except one article http://transitionvoice.com/2011/08/loaves-and-fishes-transition-and-survivalism/.